No, you don't understand where I'm coming from. I'm not talking about cool anime designs, I'm talking about shit like being able to draw perspective properly. There were plenty of pseudo-utilitarian Japanese mech designs in "the unseen" like the Locust, Marauder, Warhammer, Goliath, probably more I'm forgetting (incidentally those first three are probably the three best looking battlemechs of all time). Of the humanoid mechs with heads and hands and rifles and shit the Japanese ones like the Wasp/Stinger or Battlemaster were also just way more competent. Seriously just look up how bad everything in late Battletech looks.
By mashing together a lot of different shows they were also able to convincingly fake the idea that there had been a lot of varied corporations and nations building mechs using different schools of design.
I grant that Urbanmechs are cool
TBH the Mecha genre, Japanese or Western regardless, haven't been a real focal point of mine. When it comes to Japanese only the two Patlabor movies really caught my eye for their grounded setting even if they have fairly typical anime-ish mechs with extendo arms and giant rifles and shotguns.
Also don't mix up a lot of corporations = many varied designs. One just as to look at modern tank and aircraft development. Today all modern MBTs have the same overall design with the internals like powerplant and electronics being what sets them apart. A more exaggerated example is 5th Generation Fighters that all look like slightly different F-22s.
In both cases the survival pressures of modern warfare have resulted in those designs being the most effective and survivable.
In Battletechs case we can't actually test the designs to narrow down which ones work and which ones don't, but a general rule of thumb in military technology is that the more exotic designs that pop up in an era the more that eras technology is getting stale and people are running out of simple, utilitarian designs that make the most of what it provides. One just has to look at late-WWII piston propeller planes that look cool, but actually didn't have much better performance than more conventional designs, and often had worse. The piston engines possibilities were exhausted by the war and people were trying to find major breakthroughs where there were none, then jet engines came along providing more potential to work with which led to a return to more conventional looking aircraft.
Regardless, the mecha genre is a good example of how naive pop culture is about the necessities of military vehicle design. One just has to acquaint ones self with the term "shell trap" and pretty much all mecha and tanks in fiction become death traps.
I'd rather prefer to see more cultural variations in mecha aesthetics then from corporations showing their difference cultures traits and outlook. One just has to look at the little differences in American, British, German, French and "Soviet" (Legacy Warsaw Pact, Chinese and Indian) warships today right down to the different paint schemes and colours each prefers. One just has to see a Bliue-ish-Grey hull and Orange-Brown deck to know it's a Russian ship, or that a Haze Grey one with a simple, clean look is an American derived ship.
The best thing is that Battletech has used designs from japanese series and till now this are the best and most iconic designs. Look at the unseen mechs and compare them to the other designs. Fuck. Macross had the best designs ever. My favorite Mech designs are stil ofl the Marauder, Warhammer, Rifleman and Shadow Hawk.
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen
Marauder, Rifleman, Warhammer, Archer, Shadow Hawk and Battlemaster:
To me only Rifleman and Warhammer stand out as sane designs there. Maurauder is a typically overly-stylized Japanese mech with a lot of curves and unnecessary features, topped off (literally) with that cannon that looks like it would snap off if the mech accelerated too quickly, let alone if it fired, and would be worthless given how inaccurate it would be. Now that I take a second look at it it reminds me of Star Trek spaceships with too many thin, long critical areas that could easily be blown off to cripple the mech. Just look at those knee and elbow joints.
The other three look too human with hands being the dominant "weapon" and I can't identify any weapons on Archer, nor does it look like an electronic warfare type mech. The latter two look more like human sized power armour, all the more so given their pair of weapons identified (the far right all the more so given it's hand wielded weapon.
Rifleman and Warhammer do look nicely simple and utilitarian being essentially solid legs to carry everything on a solid foundation, a simple, solid chassis to carry the powerplant and pilot with enough armouring and "grounded", modest weaponry and electronics for arms and on the shoulders. I do admit though with Archer that it looks too humanoid and under-armed. Give it a pair of gun arms like those to the left and it would change the whole design. It does have good legs with long feet that look like it would both move well while supporting a large amount of weight.
My favorite Clan Omnimech due to its looks is the Vulture:
The reverse ankle/knee joint mechs look awesome from a combination of Rule of Cool legs and the fact that their chassis set up and weaponry are simple yet look sane. One also has to keep in mind that how common "normal" legs are in nature and that cuts to the basic requirements of legs - to be a simple solid foundation and support to keep animals up, speed is secondary. An elephants legs certain wouldn't look neat on a mech, but they'd probably be a good place to start from than a more fragile humanoid leg let alone more bird-like ones. And birds don't have reverse knee joint legs, those are their ankles - a reverse knee would be having a very delicate knee where there's the most pressure on a leg. Think: If you're ankle seizes up you could still use your knee to compensate while you can't use your ankle to compensate nearly as much for a seized knee.
It also helps that they're so odd looking that it helped designers free themselves from matching the human aesthetic with a "head" cockpit on top and human proportions. From a utilitarian, military eye you can see that it's a simple cockpit on top, power plant and electronics below and weaponry slung on each side in a modular way that would easily be taken off and replaced if damaged.
Also keep in mind that the reverse joint mechs like Vulture, and above all the Timberwolf/Madcat are the real icon mechs in most people's minds, for good or ill.
Guys, isn't Battletech a setting where after centuries of civil war and widespread use of weapons of mass destruction, everything is fucked up and technology lost and the best mechs are rusting old machines needing some maintenance and the new ones are quickly assembled for war? I mean, I'm not an expert on Battletech but isn't overdesigned animu techs kind work against the setting? I personaly think too humanoid looking mechs are silly, sure, there is the rule of cool but Battletech setting kinda ask for something more fitting for the setting, animu mechs are a decline.
Searched a few mech chassis and I liked this guy more:
Simple, utilitatian, no bullshit, something that I see could be mass produced.
But this guy here, is pure animu influence:
Skull face, robotic hands, humanoid legs... I hate that stuff, sure, it looks cool to someone that like animu but this look like something straight from Pacific Rim and it is just wanting a kaiju to fight.
The human form is a good starting base, it's just like I said above, we consciously or unconsciously add unnecessary bits to it because we want to complete the full human look. That head (with "eyes" and arms with five fingered hands hands are unnecessary. Now I could see a round "head" cockpit working, it reminds me of early warship turrets before the advantages of sloped armour became apparent, like this:
As for hands, hands are great if you need some utility for a mech if it has to grab something, but a mech is massive and isn't going to need to be dexterous enough need all five of those fingers, it's not going to be knitting or typing, it doesn't need two, it just needs one simple claw or fingers in triangle positions to grab stuff be it to clear rubble, or possibly grab onto another mech to drag it back like people to with wounded. That latter part is heavily pseudo-realistic. Vehicle recovery is only been feasible due to a combination of wheels and treads helping the recovery vehicles large doses of power enable two multi ton vehicles to be moved by one - when it comes to 50ish ton tanks the only other thing that can recover one is another 50ish ton tank or a recovery vehicle based on the chassis of one. The only reason why we're able to haul a wounded solider back, or an ant haul a wounded comrade, is our weight to scale.
